National Day of Unplugging lights up the wrong issue

If you are reading this Friday night, then you clearly didn’t get the memo (or don’t care) that today is the start of National Day of Unplugging. Spinning off the biblical dictum that we rest every seventh day, a group called the Sabbath Manifesto has been pushing for a 24-hour period in which people digitally tune out.

So, if you’d like, close this browser, power down and get to it. If your daily routine won’t allow that, though, then you’re like just about everyone else.

Movements like National Day of Unplugging have their hearts in the right place. That fact should not be lost. And they’ve received goodcoverage because of it.

Yet the gist of these sorts of movements — remember the “Don’t Buy Gas for a Day!” e-mails? — is that we’re doing something commendable and constructive by taking 24 hours to live correctly. The group has an extremely vague pledge to “start living a different life” — why not focus there? Tease out measures that promote responsibility for our choices all the time, rather than pat ourselves on the back for taking a random period of time off the grid. (Not to mention that all that e-mail you let pile up will just double your stress on Monday.)

See the 10 basic principles of The National Day of Unplugging according to Sabbath Manifesto.

See the 10 basic principles of The National Day of Unplugging according to Sabbath Manifesto.

Photo: Getty Images

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1. Avoid technology
You don't have to go this far, but the idea is to disconnect, both for your mental health, but also to appreciate what technology does for you.

1. Avoid technology
You don't have to go this far, but the idea is to disconnect, both for your mental health, but also to appreciate what technology does for you.

Photo: Vetta

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2. Connect with loved ones
Talk to your kids. Or your parents. Or your friends. Just do it in person.

2. Connect with loved ones
Talk to your kids. Or your parents. Or your friends. Just do it in person.

Photo: Getty Images

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3. Nurture your health
Get off the couch and away from you desk and get the heart rate up.

3. Nurture your health
Get off the couch and away from you desk and get the heart rate up.

Photo: Getty Images

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4. Getting outside
Yeah, it's March and it's cold, but do it anyway.

4. Getting outside
Yeah, it's March and it's cold, but do it anyway.

Photo: Getty Images

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5. Avoid commerce
Don't buy anything.

5. Avoid commerce
Don't buy anything.

Photo: OJO Images RM

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6. Light candles
This one is more symbolic, but it is the Sabbath, after all.

6. Light candles
This one is more symbolic, but it is the Sabbath, after all.

Photo: Flickr RF

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7. Drink wine
Tastes good and good for you!

7. Drink wine
Tastes good and good for you!

Photo: OJO Images RF

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8. Eat bread
Gluten-phobes beware, this may not be for you.

8. Eat bread
Gluten-phobes beware, this may not be for you.

Photo: Getty Images

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9. Find silence
These days silence is hard to come by, but I'm sure you can figure this out somehow.

9. Find silence
These days silence is hard to come by, but I'm sure you can figure this out somehow.

Photo: Getty Images

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10. Give back
While this is time to focus on yourself — and your family — give back to your community. It feels good.

10. Give back
While this is time to focus on yourself — and your family — give back to your community. It feels good.

Photo: Fuse

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National Day of Unplugging lights up the wrong issue

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Someone wise said life is about moderation and balance. A glass of wine each day is nice; 12 is a problem. Asking everyone to take a day to unplug to bring balance back into our lives is like having National Go For A Jog Day to get everyone back into shape. Everyone’s better off if we get everyone into a jogging routine, or a daily awareness to disengage from the wires.

For instance, ever hear of the phone stacking game? Very simple. You’re out with friends. Everyone puts their phones in the middle of the table. First person to touch theirs loses — and picks up the tab. (You’ve got my attention)

Or, more seriously, take public transportation, BART or the bus, with everyone peering at tiny screens, impervious to the swaying and jerking of the car. You’d think George Orwell was penning some portion of your life. If you want to effect change in people’s mindsets, start in places like that. How about Project Subway Solitude? Challenge people to use that time to just think to themselves. No music, news, e-mail or Words with Friends. Just operating the supercomputer between your ears.

We need to get past this Sisyphean quest to paint electronics and “technology” as an enemy — because its really just become a scapegoat. I once watched a fruit trader in very rural Vietnam pull out an iPhone (or Chinese knockoff) to calculate how much I owed her. These devices are portals to observe the world. Rather than fight, manage them. They’re here, however they evolve, to stay. After the telephone rose to prominence, I don’t think people were pushing for National Telegram Day.

The goal is not how to tune out for 24 hours once a year, but how to tune out for 24 minutes once a day, or 24 times for one minute every day (or, hopefully, much more than that).

On its website, to get people involved, the organizers rhetorically ask if you ever find it hard to get through a conversation without posting an update to Facebook. If your answer to that is “yes,” then not being a jerk for 24 hours is not going to change the other 364 days of your year.